White Witch, Black Curse

"That's the book Robbie gave you on the solstice when you were eighteen, right?" she was saying. "I made Robbie give it to me, but I didn't know if it was the right one. I think you'll need this, too."

Eyes wide, I took the red-and-white rock with the small dip in it with shaking hands. She wanted me to rescue Pierce? "Why?" I managed, and my mom patted my knee.

"Pierce was good for you," she said instead of explaining. "I watched you find more strength and personal resolve in that one night together than the entire eighteen years before. Or maybe it was always there, and he simply brought it out. I'm proud of you, sweetheart. I want you to do wonderful things. But unless you have someone to share them with, they don't mean a dog's ass. Trust me on this."

I couldn't say anything, and I just stared at the book and the crucible. She thinks Pierce would make a good boyfriend? "Mom, I only want this to prove to Al that he can't just jerk people into the ever-after," I said, and she smiled.

"That's a good start," she said as she stood up, drawing me to a stand in her wake. "Save him, and if it works, then it does. If it doesn't, then no harm done. The important thing is that you try." My mom leaned forward and gave me a hug, smothering me in a heady redwood scent.

I was pretty sure she was talking about trying Pierce on as a boyfriend, not trying to summon him out, and I absently hugged her back.

"You need someone a little dirty, honey, with a heart of gold," she whispered in my ear as she patted my back. "I don't think you're going to find it in this century. We don't make honest men who are that strong in their convictions anymore. Society seems to just…twist them bad."

She let go and stepped back. "Mom," I managed, but she waved me off.

"Go. Go on. You still have the watch, don't you?"

I nodded, not surprised she knew it was part of the spell. It was my dad's watch, but it had been Pierce's before that.

"Do it exactly like before. Exactly. If you added something by accident, do it again. If you stirred it with your finger, do it again. If you got your hair into it, add a strand. It has to be exact."

Again I nodded. There were tears in both our eyes, and she walked me to the hall with her arm over my shoulders. "Don't worry about the rest of this. I'll bring everything over tomorrow in the Buick. Your little car would need three trips."

Blinking, I smiled at my mom and pulled the book and stone tight to me. "Thanks, Mom," I whispered. And with the knowledge that my mom believed in me even if the rest of the world didn't, I headed for the door.

Twenty-four

I winced at the clatter of the three black potion storage bottles in the sink. Looking up at the night-darkened window, I listened for the whine of adolescent pixy wings. It was just after midnight; Jenks's kids were asleep, and I wanted to keep it that way. Hearing nothing, I shoved my sleeves up higher and dipped my hands into the warm suds. I wouldn't be able to invoke Pierce's charm until tomorrow night, but I had to do something to distract myself from my worry over Ivy, and prepping the charms would help. I still hadn't heard from Cormel, and if no one called me soon, I was calling them.

A box of cold pizza with one piece gone lay open atop Ivy's papers, and a two-liter bottle of pop sat, barely touched. The fridge was gone, leaving an empty space; our food was outside on the picnic table. Behind me on the center counter were the partially prepared bits and pieces of my spell, making a wide semicircle around the open university textbook. There was enough stuff to make three substance charms, and I was going to use it all.

New Year's Eve was my best chance to find enough ambient energy to work the spell, and I wasn't going to bet everything on one go. Not after the locator charms had failed to work. Yes, it had probably been my blood that had been the problem, seeing that Marshal's worked and mine hadn't, but the mere thought that I might do a spell wrong was enough for me to spend the time to stir a little insurance.

Oh God, Marshal, I thought, almost dropping the slippery storage bottle as I remembered my shunning. What was I going to tell him? Or better yet, how was I going to tell him? Hey, hi, I know we just had sex with our clothes on, but guess what I found out! Shunning was contagious. I didn't want him to lose his job because of me. Actually, I didn't want him to lose his job again because of me. I was the freaking black plague.